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Issue date: 11/19/08 Section: News

A St. John's professor is ranked second on Rate My Professor's list of the top 50 professors in the nation for 2008, which comes out today.

Joyce-Boland-DeVito, a business law professor in the College of Professional Studies ranked only behind Randy Bott, a religion professor at Brigham Young University, on the Web site's end of the year standings. This is the second year Rate My Professors has compiled a top 50 list and the second year Boland-DeVito has made it on the list. She was ranked 32 last year.

"I'm delighted to get positive feedback from students," she said. "I went to St. John's and I know that professors treated me with respect…I try to turn around and do the same thing [for my students]."

Rate My Professors is a Web site where college students can write comments about their professors. Symbols are used to illustrate the overall opinion students have of their instructors.

According to the Web site, a yellow smiley face stands for "good quality," a green face stands for "average quality," a blue unhappy face stands for "bad quality" and a red chili pepper stands for how "hot" or attractive a professor is. Students can also give their professors ratings out of five points in categories such as clarity, helpfulness and easiness.

Boland-DeVito, who has 129 ratings with an overall rating of 4.9, said that she checks her ratings on the Web site.

"It's good because I get feedback as to what is positive and what I can improve upon," Boland-DeVito said. "It's anonymous so people tend to be more honest."

Students in Boland-DeVito's classes agreed that she deserves her high marks.

"She's an amazing teacher," said Kevin Ramnarain, a senior. "The class goes by so fast because she makes it fun."

Jamie Rasmussen, a sophomore, shared similar sentiments.
"She's really funny," she said. "She always keeps us laughing."

Ramnarain added that Boland-DeVito responds to e-mails promptly and relates to her students.

"She tries to give you the best advice possible," Ramnarain said.
Angie Cruz, a sophomore, said that she enjoys taking Boland-DeVito's class because of the professor's personality.

"She's extremely enthusiastic," she said. "Even though I'm not a law major, I find myself interested in the class."

Another of Boland-DeVito's students, junior Katie McVeay, said that she likes that the professor is laid back.

"I think that a pressure free environment benefits the learning process," she said.

Continued...

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